Boss DS-1 mods

[antichef]

yay! DIY-Mods-Homebrew forum!!!

A few weeks ago, I read this website:

http://www.erikhansen.net/?page_id=28

and a few others, and went out and picked up a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal -- first time I ever had one (been playing for over 20 years). I followed the instructions partially, since I was unable to immediately get all the parts in Erik's list.

Erik talks about about changing the diodes D4 and D5, particularly D4, with red LEDs -- I was at Fry's and I found some red ones, but only available in a quantity that was too costly when I only needed a couple - I picked up some green ones, and one infrared one. Currently, the infrared is in D4, and I haven't changed D5.

I also put a 2k ohm trimpot on R13 - this is the resistor that Erik notes determines the amount of distortion. Due to my ignorance problem, I don't know whether the trimpot goes from 2k upward or downward.

I recorded a reamp-able guitar line track and ran it through the pedal at various stages of modification. If anyone's interested, I can post .wav files.

I like the sound of the pedal much more after the mods - it's a little more understated, but has a smoother sound that works well with most of the amps I've tried it on.

Anyone else mod one of these, or another distortion pedal?

[altitude909]

Originally Posted by antichef

yay! DIY-Mods-Homebrew forum!!!

A few weeks ago, I read this website:

http://www.erikhansen.net/?page_id=28

and a few others, and went out and picked up a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal -- first time I ever had one (been playing for over 20 years). I followed the instructions partially, since I was unable to immediately get all the parts in Erik's list.

Erik talks about about changing the diodes D4 and D5, particularly D4, with red LEDs -- I was at Fry's and I found some red ones, but only available in a quantity that was too costly when I only needed a couple - I picked up some green ones, and one infrared one. Currently, the infrared is in D4, and I haven't changed D5.

I also put a 2k ohm trimpot on R13 - this is the resistor that Erik notes determines the amount of distortion. Due to my ignorance problem, I don't know whether the trimpot goes from 2k upward or downward.

Very cool. LEDs make for excellent replacements for distortion diodes. I would try different colors since they will sound different. Definitely post some samples. FYI, a pot will increase or decrease depending on which side of the center pin you wire it

[toobalicious]

yeah, ive done this as well. have tried in in several dirt boxes including ds-1, daddy-o, "cheap" tubescreamer.....

try not only different color LEDs, but different sizes as well. the T-1 3/4 react differently than the T-1 LEDs. rat shack aslo have "other" diodes that you might like to try. germanium is a classic sound, but they are a little harder to find IIRC. as you have already experimented with asymmetrical clip circuit, i wont expand on that. there are also tone circuit mods that really really really help the ds-1, particularly with an LED mod. mine is recognizable as a ds-1 only by its orange paint.

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[Somnium7]

Another interesting mod for distortion pedals is using a chain of series connected diodes to drop the battery voltage to the circuit. Starving these circuits can give a whole range of new tones. Each diode will subtract 0.6V from the battery power. Be sure to use diodes that can handle the current demand.

On my homebrew Thor pedal I have a power switch with two positions - full power and starved. Being that this pedal is an all FET circuit things get really mushy in starve-mode due to changing the biasing of the FETs. Sounds a bit like that old rectifier amp sound on guitar. For synths it gives a seriously lofi dirtyness.

[kojdogg]

another popular mod for these is to put in the chips from the two early versions of the ibanez tube screamers and/or to do the so-called "brown mod". i got one pre-modded last year on ebay and liked it a lot, but sold it as i picked up an mjm blues devil at the same time. i see the kits on ebay (socket, plus the two chips) often.

[antichef]

OK, here's the sound files -- I made mp3s because there are so many of them. These are "raw" and not through an amp, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit (or re-amp them into *your* amp ). I took the same guitar line and played it (at line level) through each of the mods, recording what came out the other side -- and there are a couple of reference mp3s, too:

first, the "source"
http://recursor.net/DS1/source.mp3

for reference, a Fulltone FullDrive2 with all knobs at 12 o'clock - I think this is the "classic" setting, but I don't remember:
http://recursor.net/DS1/FulltoneFulldrive2.mp3

and for more reference, an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS10 with all knobs at noon:
http://recursor.net/DS1/TubeScreamerTS10.mp3

and now the DS-1, stock:
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-0-stock.mp3

changes from here on out are mostly cumulative

change C11 to .047 uf:
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-1-C11to.047.mp3

change C5 to .1 uf:
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-2-C5to.1.mp3

change C13 to .1
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-3-C13to.1.mp3

change R13 to 4.7k (which should reduce the amount of distortion?):
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-4-R13to4.7k.mp3

change D4 to a green LED:
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-5-D4toGreenLED.mp3

change D4 to an infrared LED (not cumulative - replaced green LED):
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-6-D4toInfraredLED.mp3

change R13 to 2.2k (which should increase the amount of distortion? also not cumulative, since it had previously been replaced with 4.7k above):
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-7-R13to2.2k.mp3

just the capacitor changes listed in the "indyguitarist" mods in that article -
C2 - change to 1uf
C3 - change to 0.033uf
C5 - change to 1uf
C9 - change to 1uf
http://recursor.net/DS1/DS1-8-indycaps.mp3


And later, I changed R13 to be the trimpot, but I haven't hooked back up to do another mp3...

[mshilarious]

I did the LED mod in my extreme Peavey RAGE! amp. Definitely, it helps, both for the quality of clipping and the level needed to attain it (LEDs have a forward voltage ~1.5V vs. 0.6V for the silicons)

Of course, I added a tube stage too . . .